COLUMN: Tree thief proves there is no shortage of scoundrels

Seems like you can't get through the holidays without some miscreant doing something rotten.

Heather Yakin

Seems like you can't get through the holidays without some miscreant doing something rotten.

This year's first high-profile entry into the race for seasonal scoundrel: Whoever vandalized the corral and swiped 60 Christmas trees from the Boy Scouts in the Town of Ulster.

What gets into some people? Is it, as one of my colleagues is fond of asking, a case of stupid or evil?

If you've got a beef with Scouting, don't join. Exercise your freedom of speech and write a letter to the editor. One may personally disagree with some of the Boy Scouts of America's policies and politics, but it's a private organization with the right to set its own membership rules and guidelines. The Supreme Court settled that argument in 2000.

Of course, I seriously doubt the tree theft is a political statement. We're probably looking at garden-variety venality.

In the face of such a despicable act, people have rallied to support the Boy Scouts' Rip Van Winkle Council. The Scouts from the council were selling the trees to raise money for their Camp Tri-Mount in Greene County.

Those stolen trees? Already replaced by local donors, who've also ponied up monetary gifts to support the kids.

Funny how that happens. In the face of an act that offends our moral sensibilities, good people will reach out to ameliorate the hurt and to replace what was stolen.

The same thing happened back in 2008, when some cold-blooded fool swiped a small pine that had been used as a Christmas tree outside St. Joseph's School in Middletown. A parishioner at St. Joseph's Church had donated the tree in memory of her late husband. But that sort of thing doesn't matter to the kind of creep who'd swipe a conifer from church property. Within a couple of days, the church and school had gotten several offers from people eager to donate a new tree.

Thieves have kidnapped statues of the Baby Jesus from church Nativities; they've pilfered the Virgin Mary from front-yard grottoes.

Of course, malice is equal opportunity. There's no shortage of spray-painted swastikas and slurs around the Jewish High Holy Days in autumn. These dimwits come in all sizes, shapes and denominations.

The Boy Scout theft is so aggravating, I think, because the punks who stole Christmas trees targeted a bunch of kids. And they had to know they were stealing from kids, because there's a big "Boy Scout Christmas Trees" banner tacked up on the enclosure.

The Scouts and their council's executive director, Ray Braun, are approaching this whole mess with admirable equanimity and a positive attitude.

Braun told one of my colleagues that he's "sad for whoever was desperate enough to do it."

He's got more faith in people than I do. I'm just glad the community has rewarded his faith.